Forest Service

News about Forest Service, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Jan. 7, 2015

Forest Service reverses decision to spend $10 million for a five-year nationwide public relations campaign to brand itself as a public agency that cares about people and nature. MORE

Dec. 3, 2014

United States Forest Service teams with Drexel University and New York City Parks Department to collect data from Alley Pond Park in Queens as part of 'smart forest' initiative, which monitors selected woodlands across country; hope is to better understand ecology of forests and to help steer policy-making decisions on climate change and resiliency. MORE

Oct. 26, 2014

Veronique Greenwood On Work column recalls her experience working summer jobs for the Forest Service in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range; holds that work taught her the joys, and limitations, of the great outdoors. MORE

Sep. 20, 2014

Current and former female firefighters of United States Forest Service file a complaint with the Agriculture Dept alleging that they suffered job discrimination, harassment and sexual abuse at the hands of male co-workers and that top agency officials failed to stop it. MORE

Mar. 28, 2014

Former Fort Totten Army Base in Queens now houses New York City Urban Field Station, partnership of the city's Dept of Parks and Recreation and the United States Forest Service; scientists at the station are studying the vast ecosystem that encompasses the city's five boroughs. MORE

Aug. 22, 2013

United States Forest Service is diverting $600 million from timber, recreations and other areas because it is runing out of money to fight wildfires at the season peak. MORE

Jul. 26, 2013

Forest Service scientists have partnered with Major League Baseball to help create a solution to the way in which maple bats shatter into dangerous shards, looking deep into the core of maple to find a way to make it less brittle; with Forest Service's information in hand, MLB has changed specifications for its maple bats, reducing shattering by a significant rate. MORE

Sep. 18, 2012

Scientists are debating wisdom of thinning forests and using prescribed burns as a strategy for preventing larger, catastrophic fires; practice is advocated by the United States Forest Service, but some ecologists and environmentalists are challenging it, citing recent research suggesting that large-scale fires may stimulate biodiversity. MORE

Jul. 30, 2012

RAND Corporation study recommends that the best aircraft to fight increasingly common Western wildfires would be dozens of modern 'scooper' planes, which use water skimmed from lakes and rivers, and not the slower helicopters and tanks now in use; suggests that a quick, pre-emptive attack on an emerging fire could save $3.3 million on average; federal Forest Service, which commissioned the study, disputes its central finding, saying that it underestimates the cost of such aircraft as well as their effectiveness. MORE

May. 31, 2012

Forest Service practice of requesting language interpretation and security backup from Border Patrol agents during stops of Spanish-speaking people is ruled to be discriminatory by Joe Leonard Jr, assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Agriculture. MORE

Feb. 28, 2012

United States Forest Service honors Chuck Leavell, a Grammy Award-winning keyboardist for the Rolling Stones and dedicated environmentalist, for his conservation work as a Georgia tree farmer. MORE

Oct. 25, 2011

Editorial praises decision by United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit to uphold the 'roadless rule,' regulation that bars building new roads on 50 million acres of national forest; warns that, despite this victory for environmental advocates, House Republicans will keep trying to undermine the rule as part of their attack on environmental laws. MORE